e-Residency Estonia Welcomes 6,000 New e-Residents in 2024 Q1

Estonia’s innovative e-Residency program continues to attract global entrepreneurs, with 6,037 new e-residents joining between January and June 2024. This brings the total number of e-residents to 117,000 from 185 nationalities since the program’s inception in 2014.

According to Liina Vahtras, Managing Director, the interest in establishing companies in Estonia remains high, despite a slight slowdown in growth. “The number of new e-Residency applications is 7 percent higher than in the first six months of 2023. Similarly, 7 percent more companies were created in the first six months of 2024 compared to the same period last year,” Vahtras noted.

The approval rate for e-Residency applications was an impressive 93 percent, with 6,482 applications received. Citizens of Spain, Ukraine, and Germany were the most active participants, submitting 917, 448, and 378 applications respectively. These countries also led in the establishment of new e-resident-founded businesses.

The program’s direct economic impact on the state budget amounted to 31 million euros in the first half of 2024. Additionally, e-resident entrepreneurs contribute over 11 million euros annually to Estonia’s economy through local business services.

Taavi Kotka, Chairman of the e-Residency Board, emphasized the need for technological advancements to maintain Estonia’s competitive edge. “We need to start applying new technological possibilities, such as fingerprint and facial image capture, as well as real-time identification of documents and individuals via mobile app. This would make e-Residency more convenient for the user and more secure, as well as beneficial for Estonia,” Kotka said.

The e-Residency program, launched in 2014, aims to provide foreign nationals with secure access to Estonia’s public e-services, promote cross-border entrepreneurship, and generate additional revenue for the national budget. To date, e-residents have founded or co-founded more than 31,800 Estonian companies, accounting for approximately one in five new companies each year.

For more details, visit the official e-Residency blog at e-resident.gov.ee/blog.